Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) are used to an increasing extent both for non-military and military purposes. Remotely-controlled and remotely-guided unmanned vehicles (such as UGVs) are in widespread use in applications such as Explosive Ordinance Disposal (“EOD”), search and rescue operations, hazardous material disposal, surveillance, etc. Such a vehicle has a pan/tilt/zoom camera mounted on it which transmits images to an operator. The images are often used for reconnaissance purposes, for example, examination of an object of interest. The operator watches the images on a display and operates the vehicle using a control unit. The control unit has a joystick with which the operator steers the vehicle forward/backward and right/left. Typically, there is an additional joystick with which the operator steers the camera up/down/right/left relative to the vehicle.
A common method of teleoperating an unmanned vehicle is the case where the operator controls, with one joystick of the control unit, the movements of the vehicle in space and, with the other joystick, the movement of the camera relative to the vehicle. The drawback of this method is that an experienced operator is required to steer both the vehicle and the camera at the same time, especially in high stress situations. This drawback is due to the fact that the operator must take into consideration the orientation of the camera, the orientation of the vehicle and also the difference between them when the vehicle is to be operated.
While automated camera tracking systems have been developed, they are often too complex, too expensive and/or ineffective.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method to automatically track objects/locations in the environment with the gimbaled camera without requiring additional sensors.